Cabo San Lucas to La Paz

Cabo San Lucas to La Paz

After three days anchored out in the bay of Cabo San Lucas we finally got a spot at the crowded marina. The marina is packed with power yachts attracted to the area by the superb sports fishing. The prices are steep at over $3 a foot per night. Fortunately the Baja Haha boats have been given a discount for the first three days. Our slip for Sea Reach at 42’ is $71 per day. We are glad to get tied to shore and catch up with laundry and provisioning. The staff are very friendly, courteous and helpful. The security is high with a 24 hour patrol of the marina. The restaurants along the dockside are upscale with high prices but very good food.  They are clearly catering to a well-heeled clientele.  

There is a constant barrage of people peddling souvenirs, time-shares and fishing expeditions. We find that saying, No, Gracias with a smile works well and that people at the many kiosks promoting various expeditions while masquerading as information stations are quite happy to give you information even if you are not interested in what they are selling. These friendly people helped us find Immigration, the Post Office, and the Harbour Master while plying us with coupons for various restaurants. It’s hot, very hot. We find a laundry service close by and for 80 pesos get a sizeable bag of laundry washed, dried and folded. Works for me.

We had cleared the boat in Bahia Santa Maria using an agent who had arranged for the Harbour Master and Immigration officials to come from San Carlos to clear in boats that had e-mailed their boat information ahead of time. But  - get this – immigration came without enough tourist visas and we were among the boats whose crew did not receive their visas – hence our visit to immigration in Cabo San Lucas. The whole thing is a bit of a production because first you have to pick up forms at the Immigration Office, then you have to go across the street to the bank to pay for your visa and then return back to immigration with the receipt. Nonetheless, both the bank and immigration offices are air-conditioned, the staff friendly and patient as they deal with noisy English speaking ‘touristas.’ We need to get our tourist visas before Jamie, our crew, leaves so that he can clear out of the country.

Two days later, Mike and Breda arrive from Ireland. We have been looking forward to their arrival and the prospect of spending the next few weeks cruising slowly north to La Paz and beyond. Our crew list has now changed so we need to visit the Harbour Master to have the new list stamped. Another expedition on foot through the streets. Pedestrian crossings are not for the faint hearted. Nobody stops unless you are well into the crosswalk.  We arrive at the Harbour Master Office armed with our Spanish for Cruiser’s book. The most important phrase for starting any deliberation after Buenos Dias, is – “Hay aiguen que hable ingles?” That said, the courteous front desk officer disappears and returns with La Capitania de Puerto who does indeed speak English and helps us through the paper work. Later that afternoon we take a dinghy excursion to snorkel on the reef off ‘Lovers Beach’ and are treated to crystal clear water teaming with fish life and pelicans diving expertly to gorge on the shoals of tiny fish swimming close to shore. They are fascinating to watch.

Neptune's Finger ad Lover's Beach - A great place to snorkel

John with Breda and Mike

On Thursday November 10^th we headed for San Jose Del Cabo and a marina that is offering special discounts to Baja Haha participants. Our entry fee has been well spent and mostly recouped through discounts received along the way. A lively 14knots of wind blew us all the way at a dead run. We are becoming very comfortable using our duster on one side and our 140 genoa poled out on the other side creating a twizzle rig configuration. We experimented with boat balance by placing two reefs in the main to provide stability behind the mast without blanketing the duster too much. It works a treat. We have decided that this will be our answer to a cruising spinnaker as it is quite easy to manage and allows us to easily take in one of the foresails if the wind speed increases too much. San Jose is a beautiful facility but with very few services. We took a taxi into town to shop at the well-stocked Mega Mart and then were treated to a wonderful dinner at Casa Mia by Mike and Breda. The evening is rounded off with a bit of traditional Irish music and a singsong on Sea Reach.

Dinnet at Casa Mia

The next day is a relaxing day walking and swimming. We met Paddy and Diane from The Islander and invited them back to Sea Reach for a game of ‘French Whist’. This is a card game that has some of the elements of whist combined with bidding that must be realized to avoid heavy penalty. It’s a lot of fun especially with a group of four or more.  Throw in the fact that the game is being played by three Irish couples and the merriment and competitive quotient goes up an extra notch. The stresses of the Northwest Passage are rapidly dissolving into the liquid blue of the Sea of Cortez, its spectacular beaches and its endless promise of sun.

November 12, 2011 – San Jose to Los Frailes

Bahia Los Frailes is 28nm from San Jose Del Cabo. It is a popular anchorage for boats heading north to La Paz.  By staying two miles offshore we avoided the many rocks dotting the coastline. Another beautiful downwind sail had us skipping along at 6 knots. Towards the late afternoon the wind picked up to 18-20 knots and as we turned towards land the wind came over onto the beam giving us a very fast entry into the anchorage. We doused the sails as we approached the dozen or so other boats already anchored. The wind was on shore from the south. All the boats at anchor are bouncing around in the chop that had developed. The anchorage is sheltered from the prevailing northerlies but not from the south. We had to drive the boat hard into the wind while dropping the anchor just to keep the boat being swept back rapidly by the wind before the anchor was ready to set. Fortunately there was very good holding and the anchor set well and held throughout the night while the onshore wind continued to sweep through the anchorage with two rain squalls hitting in the early hours. By dawn all was quiet and the anchorage once again looked hospitable and calm. A mega yacht with its own private helicopter had arrived into the anchorage during the night.
The Baja is a play ground for the wealthy as well s the intrepid.

Mega Yacht with private helicopter at Los Frailes

We brought the dinghy ashore with two people on board while the other two swam ashore with snorkels and fins. John, Mike and Breda opted to climb to the top of Cerro Los Frailes while I went on foot to explore the settlement in hopes of finding the restaurant talked about in the Cruising Guide. Unfortunately it was no longer in business but I had a very pleasant conversation with the manager of the recreational home complex that has been developed close to the beach. There is a camping area along part of the beach with several RV’s and simple huts. Although several vehicles were visible I only saw one person lounging on a deckchair from a distance.  The camping area looked cobbled together with no facilities that I could make out. The hikers had not yet returned by the time I arrived back at the dinghy, so I walked on to the rocky area where I could see people snorkeling and joined them. There were lots of fish as well as some live brain coral. By the time the hikers returned they were all over heated from the exertion under the midday sun and plunged into the sea to cool off.

Our next stop was Los Meurtos, an exquisite anchorage with good protection from the north westerlies.  We had listened to the weather forecast from Don Anderson at 0700.  Calm seas and low winds were predicted for the next several days. We set out at 0800 and by 1000 the winds were up to 20knots gusting to 25 – right on the nose. Our onward progress was marginal especially under sail. The seas were very choppy and uncomfortable. Two boats that had set out earlier decided to turn around and go back to Los Meurtos. We have an older cruising guide by Jack Williams which is very detailed in its description of even the marginal anchorages and showed the beach area in the lee of Punta Arena as an option.  We decided to tuck in behind the point along side a small fleet of fishing vessels moored off the beach. The anchorage provided protection from the seas but the wind still blew hard over the low-lying spit. We were happy enough to be out of the seas having made some progress up the coast. We waited until 1900 when the winds had abated to 10 knots and headed out again motoring the rest of the way to Los Meurtos. We arrived at about 0400 the next day, set the anchor and went to bed for several hours. Bahia Los Meurtos which means Bay of the Dead may not have a very inviting name but proved to be delightful stop over. Some inspired spin-doctors were trying hard to shed the old name and had renamed the beach and other resort spots to Bahia Los Suenos – Bay of Dreams.  We had lunch at the Bay of Dreams Beach Club restaurant. It was savvy enough to provide a floating dinghy dock for prospective clients. The more exclusive resort restaurant at the other end of the beach provided no dinghy access and accepted only U.S. dollars. After lunch we took a leisurely walk along the deserted beach and checked out the resort and golf course. All along the beach were small cordoned off areas with signs advising – Cuidame, Nido de Tortuga. The beach is a nesting ground for several species of turtles and local volunteers had cordoned off the nests to protect the eggs from damage by all terrain vehicles.

Los Meurtos Anchorage

Turtle nest cordoned for protection against all terrain vehicles

Los Meurtos beach

We shared the anchorage with 10 other boats many of them flying their Baja Haha burgees. We saw Navigo with Bob and Camille aboard come in to the anchorage later in the afternoon and went to have a short visit with them. We had not seen them since San Diego. They had decided not to join the Baja Haha fleet and had delayed their departure from San Diego until after the fleet had left. They were in great spirits and thoroughly enjoying their cruising. They had just downloaded a weather update from Passage Maker which predicted winds of 10 knots in the Cerravlo Canal for the following day. The canal is formed between the Baja peninsula and the 16 mile long Isla Cerravlo. It has a reputation of very choppy seas when wind over tide combine unfavourably. We planned our departure for the next day early in the morning to take advantage of the tidal flow while the winds were still low.

Our passage through the canal went well but required a lot of motor sailing against head winds. As we approached the more northerly section of the canal the winds picked up to 18 knots but had veered sufficiently to allow for an excellent sail close hauled through the last 10 miles continuing around Punta Coyote and through the San Lorenzo Channel. We had picked Caleta Lobos as our anchorage for the night and arrived there just after dark. It is located just 10 miles north of La Paz and is sheltered from everything except a westerly. We anchored in 18 feet of water had a great night’s sleep in calm conditions throughout the night.  Next morning Breda made us all ham and cheese omelets using up the last of the eggs in anticipation of reprovisioning in La Paz. We had an early morning swim and snorkel before heading off in 15 knots of wind on a broad reach that quickly brought us down to the entrance of the long channel into La Paz.

Approaching La Paz

Mike on the helm